Foundation appropriateness for stated goals

Have no doubt that the Foundation series (with apologies to Isaac Asimov) is a great way to train gymnastic strength basics. It seems to compensate for the lack of actual gymnastic experience that most people have coming into this.

Currently I like to practice mostly bodyweight strength training sometimes focusing on max strength, sometimes power and sometimes endurance - as all are important. So I feel I have well rounded strength, though certainly not well rounded gymnastic strength or abilities.

Will the foundation address strength/fitness in all these areas or does it focus on max strength or strength endurance? 

Also, to what extent will one's body type influence success? Most of my strength and weight is below my waist and GST (ring training especially) is largely an upper body activity, in which large legs, hips and glutes are hinderances. This is genetic and I don't really want to lose an asset ( pun not intended, lol). Would this be an issue within Foundations?

My main goal is muscle maintenance and increasing full body strength, training 2-3 days per week. The 1-3 other days that I'm physiclal, I play sports or run (2-4 miles). However, I don't have a rigid schedule and improvise. My results and enjoyment are currently good, however I don't wish to be complacent either....

Welcome to the board,

try to make it short:

Foundation is a progress, so like the name it builds a foundation and starts from your individual strength level.

I dont want so say too much info, cause i dont know what i can tell you, but you will have everything in it i can tell you, endurance yes, hypertrophy yes, pure strength yes. Should be normal for a good program i think.

And best is mobility is also a big part of it.

depending on your starting point you start with higher rep scheme, preparing your body for harder progressions like always.

maybe the gold info for you is: buy it and test it a few times, if its not what you need/want whatever 30 days money back guarentee

Okay bare in mind that glute ham raises and pistols come up in F2.  I don't even know what they have after that for F3-4, but I'm pretty sure there's still potential for you to build more leg strength....

As far as strength/endurance/power goes, Foundation mostly aims to build maximal strength, although there's very little rest time.  You will build a lot of endurance as well.  A stronger muscle can move faster, so you'll be building up speed as well.

If you want a more explosive program, there's an upcoming Movement series that will focus on these sorts of goals.

After seeing all 4 foundation courses I ha e to say it seems to rotate a bit between maximal strength and endurance to some extent. Let me just say if you finish foundation series you will be able to hold so,e seriously impressive holds for a good amount of time as well. Explosiveness will come with the move,ent courses I guess.

Anyway your maximal strength will be so high that your endurance for simple exercises like push ups will be quite high as well.

Foundation's focus is on work capacity: the ability to maintain a high power output over prolonged periods of time. In that sense its focus is somewhere between maximal strength and strength endurance. The upcoming movement series, intended to complement Foundation, is focused on dynamic and plyometric exercises for building explosiveness. 

Foundation is heavily upper-body dominant. Out of 7 progressions, only one really focuses on building leg strength. Your lower-body dominance may slow down your progress in some areas, but there are no movements in Foundation so advanced that heavy legs should prohibit you from mastering them. 

Joshua Slocum said:

Foundation is heavily upper-body dominant. Out of 7 progressions, only one really focuses on building leg strength.

I don't know about that.  I've been building up quite a bit of glute and hamstring strength from the early SL progressions....

The ims from spl have shaping my bum nicely too

I want to like your comment ausswe but don't want to give you the wrong idea

Can someone tell me what constitutes as 1 rep in the 'hollow body rock'?? is it 1 rep = rock back and 2nd rep is rock forward? or is it 1 rep = back and forth?

thanks

bio-mechanix said:

Can someone tell me what constitutes as 1 rep in the 'hollow body rock'?? is it 1 rep = rock back and 2nd rep is rock forward? or is it 1 rep = back and forth?

 

thanks

I have been wondering this myself, and as usually - it is the uglier one

bio-mechanix said:

Can someone tell me what constitutes as 1 rep in the 'hollow body rock'?? is it 1 rep = rock back and 2nd rep is rock forward? or is it 1 rep = back and forth?

 

thanks

It's the harder one.

Joshua Slocum said:

It's the harder one.

Standard go-to answer for any Foundation question. 

You know what....deep down inside....i knew the answer

haha

cheers guys, that's cool i've been training them like that anyway

thanks

Great!  Thanks a lot for your welcomes and responses.

I think I have a ok capacity currently, and value that. I find it's really helpful to have a strong base for life and athletics. However, my mobility isn't so great though especially in hips and shoulders, and that may hold me back.  I do want to increase that and also max strength and abilities. I like the subjective appeal of being able to perform not-so-common feats that wow the crowd, lol.

Not sure if these are included in the program, however these are some tests I did from reading around here:

* straight arms plank (not planche) -   2 minutes

* variety of continuous plank holds - 5 minutes

* hollow hold - 1 minute

* strict pull ups - 12

* dips - 15

* pushups - 30

* back wall handstand - 30 secs

* basic l-sit - 30 seconds (on a good day)

My age is 55, 6' 165 pounds - so not in the upswing of youth however do hang with the young guys in the boxing club, and can pulled off a 7minute mile on a cool day once last year, lol.

I suppose my main concern at this point is whether my schedule can accomodate enough of F1/H1 to allow one session to build upon the other.  It sounds like the ideal approach would be to devote training to this, or make it the main staple at least. Not sure what I would drop, or if I would need to and just reduce. Naturally what you don't use, you lose.

The explosiveness I currently get in boxing 1-2x a week. Then run or HIIT 1-2x week. Would I need to cut those down to 1x week each to leave perhaps 3 days for F1/H1 ? 

Cheers!

Frank

Looks like you've got some good strength already.  Prepare to be humbled by Foundation.

You don't need to cut down on any other activities that you're doing, although it may be required, depending on your recover abilities.

Foundation is generally broken up into an upper body workout and a lower body workout, although you can do both at once, if you can keep going for that long.  It should generally take between 20-60 minutes, depending on your volume for the week.

Handstand is a joke.  Well, I mean, it isn't, it's very serious stuff.  But the whole workout, including warmup, shouldn't take you longer than 20 minutes.  Just do it as a warmup before Foundation.

Generally most people do 4 workouts a week (2 upper body and 2 lower body) but there's also a 3 day alternating scheme (think starting strength) or you can do the full thing in one workout.  I'd only recommend doing that twice a week though, because it can be a bit much to recover from.

I beg to differ about H1 being a joke in terms of required time. Coming from a mobility deficit I've been spending a ton of time warming up, in order to facilitate mastery.

I'd think that as I'm busy 4-5 days a week currently, adding 3 or 4 F1 (or 7 including HS) a week would mean doubling or combining. My recovery is excellent however two sessions at different times in the day isn't feasible. Combining might be, though probably doing the shorter 4/week plan makes sense then. Also I would not mind cutting back some things as long as F1/H1 gives back what I'm surrendering, in terms of progress and enjoyment (albiet with some frustration)!

In terms of the scheduler, can I just pluck the next workout when I'm ready for it, or will it be emailed at a set schedule? Ideally I'd rather pull it rather than have it pushed.  Or if that's not possible, I can work from a chart.

I don't use the scheduler.  It's all written in the course materials anyway, so it's up to you whether you go for the scheduler or not.

As for enjoyment....  Let me know what you think of ABH, yeah?

ABH ?

Frankincensed said:

ABH ?

You'll see. 

Frankincensed said:

 It sounds like the ideal approach would be to devote training to this, or make it the main staple at least. Not sure what I would drop, or if I would need to and just reduce. Naturally what you don't use, you lose.

 

The explosiveness I currently get in boxing 1-2x a week. Then run or HIIT 1-2x week. Would I need to cut those down to 1x week each to leave perhaps 3 days for F1/H1 ? 

 

Cheers!

 

Frank

Frank, welcome to the forum and thank you for being so detailed. 

1. you don't have to feel like your "sacrificing" other things to do foundation, once you start seeing how the program is set out, you will notice there are movement families(much like BtGB, you have the L-sit progression family, the lower back progressions, obliques, multiplaniar push and/or pull.) stuff like that, so the idea is if you can master the first progression in say L-sits, you'll be doing some sets for warming up, but not exactly doing each progression in that family up until you get to the one you're currently on. if that were the case, some of the more adv. GB Athlete's here would be doing 1-3 sets of each PE and iM for Front Lever, for example, you need to master 16-17 PE's before you get to the first progression with works specifically with working the Front Lever, these aren't called PE's anymore because they are no longer Preparing you for the Front Lever, you will be working the Front Lever Specifically. could you imagine having to do 51 sets of exercises before even starting at your working limit? my goodness, that would be a waste of time and energy. so long as you are conscious that you are working a certain progression stream(horizontal press, horizontal pull, vertical press, vertical pull, abdominal compression, straight body strength, etc etc) you will know what you can and/or cannot do outside of your workout that hinders your progress. other's have gone into a great detail, because there are some members here who enjoy lifting after their workout and i can't help you there. this can be done, the idea is just not to impact recovery, which is something we all agree on.

2. as for how many days you'll be training and what you will probably put on hold, will depend on what we just talked about. once you're familiar with the movement families, you'll know what will be too much, too soon and when you're clear to just cut loose.